Chiang Mai air polluted far above safe levels

[webfact]

Chiang Mai air polluted far above safe levels

By Pathinya Srisupamart 
The Nation

 

 

The amount of small dust particles in Chiang Mai province has risen sharply after the 51-day ban on outdoor fires ended last Friday.
 

The ban had been imposed between March 1 and April 20 as a measure to fight air pollution. 

 

As of press time on Sunday, the sacred Doi Suthep Mountain was almost invisible to the naked eye. Satellite images have revealed that the number of hotspots, which are widely blamed for increasing the amount of dangerous dust particles, have jumped during the past two days.

 

Health experts have said the amount of PM2.5 particles, for example, have already far exceeded the level that could be harmful to health. 

 

People are advised to avoid outdoor activities. If they need to go out, they should wear a mask as a precaution. The N95 standard is required to filter PM2.5 particulates.

 

Assoc Professor Sate Sampattagul, who heads the Chiang Mai University’s Climate Change Data Centre, said on Sunday that locals had largely complied with the ban this y ear. 

 

“So after the ban is lifted, there are a large amount of weeds to burn down. Locals want to act fast or else the rain might arrive first,” he said. 

 

He said after the ban ended, the amount of small dust particles soared significantly. 

 

In Chiang Mai’s Chom Thong district, the amount of the dangerous PM2.5 reached 316 microgram per cubic metre of air, while the amount of PM10 rose to 332 microgram per cubic metre of air. 

 

“This is beyond safe limits,” Sate added. 

 

According to the World Health Organisation, the amount of PM2.5 should not go beyond 25 μg/m3 for a 24-hour mean, while Thailand’s standards double that to 50 μg/m3. And PM 10, should not exceed 50 μg/m3 for a 24-hour mean. 

 

Sate continued to hope that the smog problem will ease after the temperature begins to rise. 

 

“The situation will improve as season changes,” he predicted. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30343703

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-04-23

[YetAnother]

45 minutes ago, webfact said:

According to the World Health Organisation, the amount of PM2.5 should not go beyond 25 μg/m3 for a 24-hour mean, while Thailand’s standards double that to 50 μg/m3. And PM 10, should not exceed 50 μg/m3 for a 24-hour mean. 

why is the thai standard double ? ah yes , because the rest of the world 'doesn't understand us'

[RotMahKid]

Everybody in the northen knows the time of the ban was way to short, started to late and ended to early. In fact it should be a whole year ban and teach the people to use the weed as fertilizers, but for a start let the ban begin on the 1st of Jan and end the last day of April, but who am I.

Edited April 22, 2018 by RotMahKid

[simoh1490]

39 minutes ago, YetAnother said:

why is the thai standard double ? ah yes , because the rest of the world 'doesn't understand us'

Because 98% of the world doesn't meet the WHO standards so at least the Thai standard is realistic and applicable to today rather than being a  wish for the future.

[simoh1490]

12 minutes ago, RotMahKid said:

Everybody in the northen knows the time of the ban was way to short, started to late and ended to early. In fact it should be a whole year ban and teach the people to use the weed as fertilizers, but for a start let the ban begin on the 1st of Jan and end the last day of April, but who am I.

Not a rural hilltribe farmer, that's who you are and with no appreciation of the problem.

[thenewgoo]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

The ban had been imposed between March 1 and April 20

Ban on burning? I guess nobody knew about the ban - the pollution levels haven't changed except for a couple of rain interruptions.

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

locals had largely complied with the ban this y ear. 

Ha ha!

[simoh1490]

Just now, thenewgoo said:

Ban on burning? I guess nobody knew about the ban - the pollution levels haven't changed except for a couple of rain interruptions.

 

Ha ha!

The governments in Laos, Cambodia, China and Myanmar decided not participate!

 

I live in the middle of several hundred if not thousand rai of rice fields and nobody here has done any burning this year, nobody dare.

[brommers]

Can anyone point out any form of effective measure taken by the rulers in Bangkok or their local reps?! The burning ban was utterly ineffective because records clearly show that almost daily the Chiang Mai pollution was many times worse than even the lax Thai standards. Now the ban has been lifted I can clearly smell smoke and the pollution only goes from seriously bad to disastrous. 

 

Technology in the form of  mobile phone apps linked to air quality measurement devices has exposed the utter incompetence of the authorities, and as people become increasingly better informed the almost wilful neglect of public health safety will become a bigger issue. But until local people rather than farangs start to really voice their anger and take the issue to the ballot box the powers that be will do nothing.

 

Our esteemed governor's only action seems to have been threats against a schoolboy who created a powerful image of the seriousness of the situation by using the 3 Kings wearing masks as the core of his message. Shame on you governor, for having no moral authority and no capability to deal with this crisis.

[simoh1490]

15 minutes ago, brommers said:

Can anyone point out any form of effective measure taken by the rulers in Bangkok or their local reps?! The burning ban was utterly ineffective because records clearly show that almost daily the Chiang Mai pollution was many times worse than even the lax Thai standards. Now the ban has been lifted I can clearly smell smoke and the pollution only goes from seriously bad to disastrous. 

 

Technology in the form of  mobile phone apps linked to air quality measurement devices has exposed the utter incompetence of the authorities, and as people become increasingly better informed the almost wilful neglect of public health safety will become a bigger issue. But until local people rather than farangs start to really voice their anger and take the issue to the ballot box the powers that be will do nothing.

 

Our esteemed governor's only action seems to have been threats against a schoolboy who created a powerful image of the seriousness of the situation by using the 3 Kings wearing masks as the core of his message. Shame on you governor, for having no moral authority and no capability to deal with this crisis.

You draw a relationship between burning in Thailand and airborne pollution here, that may not be a valid relationship.

 

And since you go on to state that now the ban has been lifted you can smell smoke and that the situation is getting worse, logically, you just said the ban was effective!

 

Technology cannot easily play a role in separating the volume of burning from the effects of the inversion layer, if twenty farmers burn land and that smoke is trapped by the inversion layer, the pollution readings would be higher than if a hundred farmers burned land and the smoke allowed to escape. Technology cannot also disseminate the polluted air that originated in Thailand and the bad air that was blown in across borders. 

 

Once again, I live in the middle of a lot of rice paddy and nobody here burned anything, not one single farmer.

[Tarteso]

North Chiang Mai today...

[simoh1490]

1 minute ago, Tarteso said:

North Chiang Mai today...

Ah yes, AirVisual, owned by IQAir, makers of the famed air purifiers, the company that uses modelled data to produce their numbers rather than actual readings!

[jollyhangmon]

'Amazing' stink even over here in Phayao Centrale last couple of evenings, never experienced this strong ... guess i wouldn't be too happy with say another 20, 25yrs on my back.

One can only hope the rain predicted for around middle of the week really does show up ! 

[Tarteso]

Ah yes, AirVisual, owned by IQAir, makers of the famed air purifiers, the company that uses modelled data to produce their numbers rather than actual readings!

Agree, whatever, can not see today my trees becouse the smog. Could you give advice for any right app? Thanks

[fantom]

45 minutes ago, Tarteso said:

Agree, whatever, can not see today my trees becouse the smog. Could you give advice for any right app? Thanks

AQI

Do a search on play store, it gives real time readings for various sites round thailand

[Jonmarleesco]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

People are advised to avoid outdoor activities. If they need to go out, they should wear a mask as a precaution. The N95 standard is required to filter PM2.5 particulates.

Naturally, the authorities getting off their collective a__es and banning burning outright is too much to expect.

[Jonmarleesco]

1 hour ago, simoh1490 said:

You draw a relationship between burning in Thailand and airborne pollution here, that may not be a valid relationship.

Probably safe to say it is.

[simoh1490]

1 hour ago, Jonmarleesco said:

Probably safe to say it is.

During a no burning period? The evidence in many quarters is to the contrary. 

[Dellboy218]

3 hours ago, simoh1490 said:

Ah yes, AirVisual, owned by IQAir, makers of the famed air purifiers, the company that uses modelled data to produce their numbers rather than actual readings!

Which is comperable to other apps available.  

[Dellboy218]

27 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

During a no burning period? The evidence in many quarters is to the contrary. 

You seem to think there has been no burning because it was decreed so.  There have been plenty of fires.  I can smell the smoke from nearby fires and have done so on most days.

Edited April 23, 2018 by Dellboy218

[marko kok prong]

Well any of us who has been here a while know Thais love burning things,from rice stubble to sugar cane to a bit of rubbish in the village. This year has been very bad for sugar cane burning here in Phetchabun province,and has gone on longer than i can recall in six years here,many mornings i look outside to see the black 'snow" all around the outside of my house.

[cmsally]

How about that inane 200k fund for villages be used to buy a heavy duty mulcher for every village/tambol. A place in every district where you can take your organic waste and they shred it up. For optimal use you would need to have enough machines so everyone has fairly close proximity.

[simoh1490]

2 hours ago, Dellboy218 said:

Which is comperable to other apps available.  

None of which are comparable to using live accurate data as used by the PCD! And if there is no data for a particular area modelling the answer may or not be accurate or reasonable.

[simoh1490]

1 hour ago, Dellboy218 said:

You seem to think there has been no burning because it was decreed so.  There have been plenty of fires.  I can smell the smoke from nearby fires and have done so on most days.

I seem to think that because I can see nothing but rice fields in every direction from where I live that there have been no fires here because we haven't seen any. You on the other hand can smell smoke, you should get out of town and go have a look!!!

[cyberfarang]

Even if staying indoors, unless the home has all it`s windows, doors and ceiling gaps sealed, with 24 hour aircon and air purifiers, then there are no ways to escape breathing in the toxic air.

 

Many of my friends have left the city in their droves.

[simoh1490]

1 hour ago, cyberfarang said:

Even if staying indoors, unless the home has all it`s windows, doors and ceiling gaps sealed, with 24 hour aircon and air purifiers, then there are no ways to escape breathing in the toxic air.

 

Many of my friends have left the city in their droves.

How many friends do you have that they CM leave in droves!

[Cheesekraft]

This is proof the ban worker fantastically, great job to those in charge of preventing dangerous burning!

[cardinalblue]

So I guess the air is clear and pristine b/c no farmers are burning in your SMALL local area....really?

 

another let's blame Burma for the air pollution...

 

so the heavy air pollution  in CM is just a figment of everyone's imagination?

 

Because 20 local farmers are not burning...same mentality of a person get blown up and finding an arm 20 meters from the torso and then stating "look ,this arm has no wounds on it....what's the problem?"

[rumak]

2 hours ago, cmsally said:

How about that inane 200k fund for villages be used to buy a heavy duty mulcher for every village/tambol. A place in every district where you can take your organic waste and they shred it up. For optimal use you would need to have enough machines so everyone has fairly close proximity.

I've been pushing this idea for years to anyone that would listen....well, there's actually only 2 of us living here  :-)    I don't like to bash thailand so let's just say that many things that seem so easy to do are never

implemented .  The locals here ( 70 km from CM,) definitely abide by the ban.  But then its pow away.  I do think that

if the mulcher was carted on a scheduled basis around the moo bahn that the farmers would use the service if told they could not burn.   But  taking all their tree trimmings to a designated area might be a little much for most.

[simoh1490]

3 minutes ago, cardinalblue said:

So I guess the air is clear and pristine b/c no farmers are burning in your SMALL local area....really?

 

another let's blame Burma for the air pollution...

 

so the heavy air pollution  in CM is just a figment of everyone's imagination?

 

Because 20 local farmers are not burning...same mentality of a person get blown up and finding an arm 20 meters from the torso and then stating "look ,this arm has no wounds on it....what's the problem?"

Have you ever looked at the wind maps? Have you ever looked at the NASA firemaps and related that activity to the wind maps? Have you wandered around the hills of Samoeng and the Mesa Valley during the past six weeks and observed a lack of burning? I thought not!

[rumak]

1 hour ago, cyberfarang said:

Many of my friends have left the city in their droves.

gotta watch your vocabulary closely.......there lie in wait vultures ...oops... i mean some people ready

to pounce !